About the Deck and Fence Business from the founder of GardenStructure.com

Friday, January 13, 2006

Where do people look to find a Deck Builder.

Where do people look to find a Deck Builder?

Yellow pages—is often the first stop. Talking to Scott Stevens of Outdoor Style (A deck builder currently being set up with us in Newmarket Ontario), these leads are mostly price based. They are looking for competitive quotes. They want quality too, however they seem to assume that everyone building decks were trained at the same school and that decks are a commodity—rather than art.

Adding a website to a yellow pages ad can go a long way to qualifying your prospects—and even convincing them that you are the guy to deal with.

The Internet is quickly becoming the choice of more educated buyers. People want to see a bit of what the contractors do. A site that shows up where the people expect to find you and then wows the people with high quality and creative work tends to develop quality prospects

Sites that promise top quality—lowest price—free estimates and we’ll even water your plants and take out your garbage tend to develop more leads—that rarely end up translating to profit for the contractor.

Direct Mail is often a waste of time since normally they consist of a black and white sheet of paper with Best Deckbuilder in Kansas—and a phone number. Most subdivisions will get 20 deck company flyers delivered to their door every spring. This is a great opportunity for a company to upstage the competition. Show them far better work on a better brochure and you will demand a better price and walk away with the job whenever the people have a budget. Further directing them to a great website will also improve response.

Referrals are fabulous—but remember they don’t happen nearly enough. These leads must be cultivated. Keep in touch and become friends with all your clients—they will remember you whenever the occasion to plug your services arrives.

Lawn Signs tell people that your current customer is happy—and since you are already working in their area you are the company for them. Again—website displayed on the sign to offer more information and you are pre-selling for the future.
I can remember my first sign guy saying—“A good Sign is a Sign of Good Business”